GUARDIAN ANGELS

The Koran states, "He [God] sends forth guardians who watch over you and carry away your souls without fail when death overtakes you." Guardian angels are angels assigned by God for protection. There are guardian angels for almost everything including people, nations, planets, plants, animals and governments.

RELIGIONS AND CULTURES
The concept of guardian angels can be found in both the modern and ancient worlds. Ancient Romans believed that guardian spirits called lares protected each family. Romans also believed in the Genius spirits who protected men and boys, and Juno, spirits who guarded women and girls. Pakistani and Burmese people believe in guardian spirits called Nats. Nats were thought to dwell next to the people they were guarding. In Islam there are the Malaika, known as the guardians of mankind, and the Hafazah, who protect humans against the jinn (demons). Guardian spirits called genies are found throughout the Near East. In Zoroastrianism there are the Fravashi, ancestral spirits who are also guardian angels. The Native Americans believe in guardian spirits, much like the guardian angels of other religious beliefs. Each clan or tribe has a guardian that is believed to remain with them forever. Personal guardian spirits are sought after by individual members of a tribe. In Catholicism it is taught that every child has two guardian angels, one good and one bad sitting on either shoulder.

CHILDREN
It has been suggested that children have several guardian angels. This is because children are more vulnerable and in need of more protection when they are young. As they grow, they are thought to need less angelic protection as they become aware of the dangers around them. Some, not all, of the angels leave a child as he matures. The famous German clairvoyant Rudolph Steiner believed that the guardian angels are with a person through each incarnation and carry the complete history of the soul of the person. Once the individual has finished the last incarnation, the guardian angel's role is completed and he leaves that individual.

PERSONAL
The guardian angels of individuals come from the order of angels called Angels. They rank last in the angelic hierarchy and are the closest angels to mankind. They are assigned to individuals at birth to protect and guide them. They are sometimes referred to as personal angels and companion angels. Guardian angels use a variety of ways to reach individuals, including their intuition, thoughts and dreams. Sometimes, they work through people and manipulate circumstances in order to relay messages. Although guardian angels do appear from time to time, most of their work is done invisibly. When they do appear, howver, they may take on a variety of forms including people, animals, lights etc. When appearing as humans they appear in forms that are in accord with the beliefs of the individual, disguising themselves in the appropriate culteral clothing. There are many reports, too, of angels appearing in full angel regalia, including halos and wings. October 2 is the feast day of guardian angels.

(Taken from The Encyclopedia of Angels by Constance Victoria Briggs, published 1997 by the Penguin Group)

Another look
Other sources have indicated that a Guardian Angel can come from any of the Choirs of Holy Angels. All the angels of these choirs can communicate with each other directly - an inferior angel can contact a superior angel at any time by directing pure thought towards that higher spirit, and in this way, an angel is able to access any other angel among the angelic hosts. Humans can communicate with angels in the same way: by directing their thoughts towards all the angels, or towards specific Choirs, or towards a particular angel, such as the Guardian Angel of a person, place or thing.

As Each soul progresses higher on the path to sanctity, angels from the higher Choirs are assigned to join that soul's Guardian Angel. In the higher realms of spiritual awareness people are guarded by a team of angels. The path is more difficult as the ascent to God continues because the attacks of the rebel spirits are more wicked and cunning - since the stakes are higher. The angelic team defends a soul's attempt to conform more perfectly to the will of God which causes rebel spirits to rage since they loathe the will of God.

Some Guardian angels are assigned to persons who irrevocably and with full knowledge choose to rebel against the will of God. The consequences of these individuals are passed through the portal of death where they are met by evil spirits who wait to claim them. They are shackled and brought as prey to the kingdom of death, despair, degradation, and depravity. Therein each person is assigned a personal demon by Satan to torture and punish him or her forever. The Guardian Angel assigned to that individual, now deprived of the eternal companionship of his beloved earth person, is assigned as a special guard of the Queen of Angels, where he praises the Justice of God for all eternity. In this way the Guardian Angel is not deprived of joy.

These concepts and some parts were taken from Angel Power by Janice T. Connell published in 1995 by Ballantine Books which cites Ibid as evidence for most of these ideas.

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